Tag Archives: finished projects

May 1, 2016 · 11:34 am

Mansewing

Not much to say here.

I picked up this fabric a little after Christmas, when it first went half price. Good thing I did—it was gone within a few days of that. It’s the same fabric as my plaid skirt, just in a different colourway. I bought it for Tyo, since she’s been enjoying her red flannel so much, but as soon as I got it home my husband pounced on it.

Kwik Sew 2258 has been on the list of things to sew him for, oh, a couple of years now, and this seemed like a good time to try it out since I knew he wouldn’t want a fitted flannel and its “vintage” promised an appropriately relaxed fit. It’s actually a bit more shaped than I expected—I straightened the side seams to go with the plaid.

Unlike other shirt patterns I’ve sewed with, this KS one had only 1/4″ seam allowances. Throughout. Now, I’m a fan of narrow seam allowances generally, and I got excited for a bit because the 1/4″ SA would actually work with my flat fell foot! BUT, on a soft flannel it was really easy to miss the seam allowance if there was a miscut (and I am not the world’s best cutter) or for the seam to ravel on handling before I could get it finished. I’d like to try it again on a finer shirting. With felled seams. (They felt too firm for the soft flannel feeling I was going for.) I wound up having to darn part of the back yoke where I had missed the seam allowance. Bad seamstress.

I cut the M to go with his 40″ chest, and added a generous 4″ to the sleeve length (based on previous experience), though that might have been overkill. I graded up to a size L in the collar, as collars are always too small on him, but wound up needing to add about 2″ more.

I tried very hard to match my plaid meticulously, except for cutting the hard bits on the bias. (Collar, cuffs, yoke and plackets.) I succeeded horizontally except at one armpit, and failed miserably at matching vertically across the fronts. I keep thinking I know how to do that and failing at it, so I should really re-read all the tutorials. 😦 Sewaholic has a great one that makes perfect sense when I read it. 😦

I cut & sewed it when I had a few days off after Easter, then realized that none of the buttons I had enough of were suitable* and had to hold off for a little while, at which point I had lost all drive (plus he was already wearing it—it’s not like it’s destined for office wear.)

Eventually, though, I managed to get some plain black buttons and see them on, and it’s been in pretty common rotation since. And I even managed to cut another Burda 6849 out of the remainder for Tyo, assuming I can motivate myself to actually sew it up.

And that’s about it, really. Oh, the front knotted look is as per the husband’s style instructions, and the high-rise-ass-hanging-out-shorts were acquired by one of my children from a friend. My husband forbid them to wear the shorts out of the house, so I have stolen them. I haven’t worn anything with this high a rise since I figured out I could cut the waistband off my Levi’s 501s in about 1998. It feels profoundly weird.

*aka my husband didn’t like any of them.

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Tagged as finished projects, Kwik Sew 2258

April 18, 2016 · 6:35 pm

Making a bag

Is a thing that I have done now. Hmm.

This marks my first ever “craft” project for work (craft projects like quilts, home dec projects, etc. are a separate category from our regular monthly clothing projects.) I’d actually been thinking about making a bag since my long-suffering backpack crapped out before Christmas, but the impetus waned when I found a replacement backpack in the closet. I have this creeping feeling that I should accept the fact that I’m no longer a student and just ditch the backpack (if only because it doesn’t go at ALL with the rest of my style and on some level I’d like to be a person who can Accessorize, but, well, I like backpacks. And I hate purses. And I hate the ginormous sleeping-bag-sized purses everyone seems to be carrying these days with a special brand of venom. Anyway. Things crystallized when we got this heavy felt in in some colors that actually spoke to me: heathered greys. I am really into grey this year. How boring. 😛

I took the opportunity to try as many of the bag doodads Fabricland carries out as I could—D rings, swivel hooks, belting, leather base (which turned out to be faux leather, boo hiss.), decorative cord. I had the idea of a roll-top bag in my head (Thank you, Taylor Tailor) but it wasn’t going to work with my stiff felt. However, some very satisfying Pinteresting highlighted plenty of nice felt bags including several with a simple foldover top, and also lots of variations on the kind of strap I wanted—the sort that lets you swap a bag from a purse-style (so you can look like a grown-up) to a backpack style (which I still think is a far more practical and healthy style.)

Now, the pre-made bag bottom (faux leather cunningly crafted with a sueded contrast inside so it looks like leather in the package :P) is of a fixed size, so that was the dimensions I went with for my bag, with the height constrained by the width of my felt. The proportions looked reasonable, so then I just added the fold-over in the darker felt. (The darker is slightly thinner and softer for some reason.)

I had a lot of fun playing with sample stitches and practicing lapped seams, but I wound up using only very basic stitching, for that clean modern look. I still love the machine catch-stitch in the grey on grey, though…

Originally, I hadn’t been going to bother with any internal pockets, mostly for the sake of keeping things simple. However, a few internal pockets are really a necessity if I’m going to make full use of a bag, so I free wheeled an insert to attach at the side-seams. I actually love a lot of things about it, especially how my exposed zipper turned out in the felt. And while the additional layer made the eventual side seams just a little more hellish, (we’ll get there.) it all worked beautifully in that it hugs the back of the bag closely, without me needing to topstitch it down in a way that would show on the outside.

Now that I have the bag finished, though, I’m doubtful they will get any usage. Why? Because with the foldover top they are buried DEEP at the bottom of a dark well of felt, and I can barely see them, never mind reach them to use. The above photo was taken from within the well by using the flash, otherwise photography of any kind would be impossible. On the upside, I can’t see the ugly seams and stray threads like you can in the photo, either.

Did I mention it’s deep?

Fortunately I have monkey arms.

The construction with all those rectangles was lovely, and easy and even with a bajillion layers at the bottom corners my new Janome soldiered along quite well. (The only needle casualty happened when the needle came right out of the machine, which probably has more to do with me not bothering to use a screwdriver to tighten it in like you’re supposed to.) the fact that I was using an 18-gauge denim needle probably helped. I mean, it was not a happy Janome. I’m sure it’s wishing it had been purchased by a nice lady who just makes placemats and teeny wall quilts. But it did it, and deserves plenty of credit for that. Also, the feature where you can lift the presser foot higher than up is the best feature ever. Except for the auto thread cutting and the variable speed feature. Those are also the best features ever. But in this case, the presser foot height.

Turning the bag right side out was a production. Tyo had to help me. And the polyester felt is completely immune to pressing, at least at any temperature that won’t turn it into a little puddle of plastic, so the side-seams look terrible. If it were more flexible I would topstitch them down but no way I could maneuver the tube through the machine neatly.

In the end, my only real disappointment is that it’s quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be—full backpack sized, really, not just glorified lunch bag. Fine for wearing on the back, but too big to carry as a bag. Well, in my opinion. 😉 but I already told you my opinion of giant bags.

Now it has to go hang for like 3 months!!! (I know, right?… So I won’t even get to road test it until practically winter. Oh, well it’s a wintery bag anyway. And my backpack is doing fine…

(Also, DO YOU SEE HOW I AM OUTSIDE AND MY LEGS ARE BARE AND I HAVE NO SHOES!!!! Life is glorious.)

(Also it occurs to me that I probably shouldn’t fret too much about backpacks for grown-ups when I’m still running around in a polkadot mini dress.)

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Tagged as bagmaking, finished projects

March 30, 2016 · 4:37 pm

Navy & Icing

No sooner do I declare that I like a bit of edge in my clothing, than I make a bunch of things that are super sweet.

Butterick 6321 – Lisette

Butterick 6321 is a bonus project—a pattern featured in Fabricland’s current mailer, so available as an extra project if someone wants to do it. And it is seriously cute. And, pockets. But, I had a hard time settling into this project. Sometimes I feel a bit like a stereotype of myself as the girl who makes the pretty dresses. In the end, I like it more than I thought I might a lot of the way through, though.

I had a hard time picking the fabric. We have a lot of gorgeous rayons and some nice summer cottons in store right now, but I liked how the detailing looked on the solid version on the cover. Eventually I settled on this pretty and very light-weight stretch denim, and lace for the detailing. I do love this lace, and have been looking for an excuse to use it in a project since it came in.

Instant fuzz collector.

After checking the final garment measurements, and knowing I was using a stretch fabric, I opted to sew a size 10 throughout, rather than grading to a 12 for waist and hips. I am glad I did the 10 in the bottom half, but I could maybe have gone down to an 8 in the bust and shoulders. (Typing that terrified me. I have never in my sewing life been an actual pattern size 8, though I’ve tried once or twice with disastrous results.)

You can’t see it, but my swayback alteration was successful. No back wrinkles.

I made most of my usual alterations—swayback, square shoulder, and petiting along the designated lengthen-shorten line. What I skipped was additional petiting through the armscye. I figured, because of the construction with the seam there, I could adjust at that point later if necessary, and I overdid the petiting on a few projects last fall so I’m a bit gunshy now. Come to think of it, those were both McCall’s patterns, though.

Lightened. Nope, you still can’t see it.

Then I went and did my construction in such a way that it would be nearly impossible to adjust anything by the time I could actually try stuff on properly. In hindsight I could’ve left off the bodice facings and the sleeves until everything else was finished, tried on, and then fixed the shoulder height. Hindsight is so perfect, isn’t it? What I actually did was finish every damn thing on the bodice, beautifully, with plenty of seam grading and trimming to make things work in my heavy fabric, before I even had the skirt started.

A couple of construction notes: the pattern calls for self-lined shoulder pieces and cap sleeves. I substituted a navy stretch poplin for these pieces (as well as the pocket lining) because of my heavier fabric. I also went a bit off road on the construction, as I wasn’t completely fond of the method described. I am pretty happy with what all I did, even the moment when I had the entire bodice rolled up inside the little front “placket” so I could machine finish it. Just not with the fit. /sigh.

This is another side-zip dress. *headdesk* it’s not so much the physical insertion of a side zip that I dislike, as the difficulty they add to fitting as you go, and then the awkwardness of wearing them after. In this case, we were wary of using an invisible zipper because of the heaviness of the denim… So rather than struggle with the bulk of a conventional zipper or a lapped side zip, I basically went for the nuclear option. Exposed, chunky metal zip.

2016-03-29 19.01.39 I’m not sure if this is the wisest style decision I’ve ever made, but I do like the flatness of it. It goes with the denim but seems a bit out of place with the lace. And the fancy pull is gigantic. Oh, well.

At my first try on, before the zip was in, I confess my heart sank. The shoulders were weirdly wide and the cap sleeves came too low under my arms, feeling extremely constricting. I had visions of ripping off the sleeves entirely for a sundress look. Or just throwing it all in a corner.

Too much room in the shoulders.

But, it’s a work project and so no UFOs allowed. Once I had the zip in, things looked a lot better. With the waist sitting where it should, the extra height above the bust is more apparent, but it also forces the bottom of the cap sleeve up to the right height under my arm, so the weird binding is down to manageable proportions. Meaning I won’t be turning cartwheels easily but I can comfortably put my hands on my hips and cross my arms. The shoulders are definitely a bit wide, but some of that might also be the extra height letting things slide around. I don’t have narrow shoulders, by the way.

Extra height makes folds at shoulders.

This pattern has a sweet, detailed upper bodice, and the skirt is fairly narrow with some interesting shirt-tail shaping at the hem (although it’s subtle, maybe a bit too subtle to be noticeable. On the other hand if it were more pronounced it would’ve been harder to get my wide lace to curve evenly to match the edge). I like them both—I’m just not convinced they go really well together. I’d love to pair the bodice with a fuller skirt (say, Sewaholic’s Hollyburn, which has the same kind of pockets) and/or the skirt with a little sundress bodice or even as a separate piece. In reality, though, I like the finished object more than I thought I might, and if I can bring myself to rework the shoulders I’ll probably be good with it as is.

It does look a bit like a Victorian bathing suit.

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Tagged as Butterick 6321, finished projects, Lisette

March 26, 2016 · 7:17 am

Victorian Romp

_MG_0155 My ersatz Victorian dress is finished, or at least as finished as it is likely to get, which is to say there is trim of some kind on all three main elements. (Waist, aka bodice, skirt, and overskirt.) I’m actually reasonably comfortable that it falls within the range of Victorian “normal” and isn’t too weirdly stripped-down, which is actually the biggest thing that often seems off about costumes (at least to me). Well, the skirt is probably a little too plain. And the whole thing is on the plain end. Just, hopefully not too plain. (And my neckline is completely inappropriate for a day dress as far as I can tell, while my suiting fabric would not be a good choice for evening wear… but this was my “fun” project and I don’t personally like high necks, so I picked the neckline I liked.

While getting dressed, I lost a button. A significant amount of the editing involved photoshopping the button that popped off when I was getting dressed.

The bodice has a pleated ribbon trim; the overskirt has the same ribbon, but unpleated. For the skirt I took all the remaining bias tape from my main fabric and folded the edges under to make a trim I could stitch down. This was the least successful trim as the bias is somewhat rippled (even though I stitched both edges in the same direction). I wasn’t convinced the placement was any good, either, but actually looking at the photos I don’t mind it. I don’t feel inclined to rip it all off, in any case. If I had more of the red fabric I would add a pleated trim around the bottom of the skirt, but I don’t, and at least at present I don’t feel like buying more.

_MG_0132 Anyway, this completion happily coincided with a couple of things. With my most recent Victorian Sewing Circle afternoon. Also, my sister-in-law, who has always dabbled in photography (and even worked as a portraitist a few times) has decided she wants to really get into the game. Photographer with a Real Camera who just wants some serious practice? Sign me up! So I got her to meet me at the Marr Residence that morning for a fun (almost*) period photo shoot.

We started with boudoir shots.

It’s been a really long time since I did a real photo shoot with, like, an actual photographer. It was really fun.

with book light playing 2 We bounced around the house, playing with the light.

At the firexcf Every room was different.

With Tree

The Marr Residence has a great little double-lot park, and the day was warm enough that it wasn’t a huge sacrifice to run around in the snow—although the tail end of winter is not the most scenic time of year anywhere.

Angie was good enough to let me have at the electronic files. It’s also been a really long time since I took the time to seriously edit photos for anything. I am not on the Better Pictures Project. 😉 most of my blog photos are quick snaps with my iPhone, occasionally tripod shots on my point ‘n shoot, and the editing I do is only basic straightening, cropping, and a wee bit of contrast & exposure. Mostly via the built-in iPhone editor. It’s a hard reality that I have accepted—if I wait for good photos before I blog, there will be no blog.

26018139361_aecb868b5a_o

But it was sure nice to actually take some time with these, both the photo shoot and the editing. And I even had RAW to play in! (I am not a good enough photo editor to tell you if RAW actually makes a difference in the final photo, but it sure is FUN!) though most of these were done from the jpeg as it’s just faster for me. RAW is like a rabbit hole from which there is no return.

I can’t help it. I love me some cheesy filtering sometimes.

I did most of the editing in GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is photoshop’s slightly awkward but most importantly free little brother. It can do pretty much whatever photoshop can, and doesn’t cost a dime (and it took about three seconds of googling for me to find and download the add-ons for processing RAW format and batch-editing. I do find it difficult to bounce back and forth between the two programs, as you have to remember two different ways to do everything, but if you don’t want to shell out for Photoshop it’s a pretty awesome alternative.

Laughing on the path red I may have had a bit too much fun with the editing process, making sepia and low-colour versions. Oh, well. They’re my photos and I’ll cheese ’em up if I want too. I also lost the cover off one of my fabric-covered buttons while getting dressed, so that had to be photoshopped out of a bunch of pics. I will warn you, I also took the liberty of some SERIOUS Photoshopping once or twice—so if you catch yourself wondering “is her waist really that small?” The answer is probably “no, not even in a corset.” PICTURES LIE!!!!

Outside house tight red

PS, should you have the inclination, you can find my photographer at Angel Jems Photography—facebook page for now, hopefully a real website at some point. Also I’ve uploaded a few more photos on my Flickr page:

and:

What we didn’t get were any shots resembling an actual Victorian portrait, standing stiffly against a backdrop and not smiling. These pesky modern photographers and their action shots and candid snaps. Maybe next time.

Outside and pensive *you’ve seen my hair, right? Short of concocting a story about how I cut it off and sold it to buy a chain for my husband’s prize watch, which he sold to buy me a comb for my beautiful hair, we’re kinda stuck. I don’t have an appropriate wig, and I’m disinclined to go out and buy one at the moment. I also don’t have a period hat for the outdoor shots.

Tree hug contras

Ok, I’ll stop now.

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Tagged as Angel Jems Photo, finished projects, too much talk, Victorian, Victorian clothing, Victorian Sewing, Victorian Sewing Bee

March 15, 2016 · 8:25 pm

Rinse, lather…

Repeat.

I made Burda 6686 again.

Not even a different version. Just longer. And with no edge to cut the sweetness. This one is sugar all the way.

The fabric is a scrumptious cotton gauze that came home with me as a splurge after Christmas. I wasn’t sure what it wanted to be, but I was in love. (That kinda happens a lot.)

It’s pale grey shot with blue, though I can’t seem to get the blue to photograph. While I was surprised how opaque my thin rayon was in the first version, this version is definitely sheer, and the straps on my long slip show around the wide neckline. Oh, well.

It was probably at its best in this mirror shot before I went and wore it all day…

I added lace at the neck again, and a bit more along the underbust seam. This version pulls up a bit during wearing, more than the green one seemed to. I’m thinking it’s that the gauze has a lot more give than the rayon. I tried loosening the elastic at the neckline so there was less pull up, but it just got floppy and gapey. I could add elastic at the underbust but I’m wary of gathering on the skirt portion.

I shall wear it anyway. 🙂

Swayback adjustment win: Perfect wrinkle-free back! Well, aside from the wrinkles from sitting in it all day.

I lengthened the skirt and added a bit more flare than as drafted. I was worried it was too long, but now that I hemmed it up 2″ (machine blind hem this time 😉 ) I actually think it might be a bit short. Certainly too short for the heels I’m wearing. I can always let it out if I need to.

Did I mention how much I love this fabric? Almost as much as I love that I managed to squidge across my soggy backyard to take outdoor pics in the snow-free part. Snow is back today, of course.

In my imagination this is the perfect combination of a Regency historical silhouette with modern wearability (for a given level of wearable. 😉 )

Definitely needs ballet flats rather than heels, though.

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March 10, 2016 · 7:35 pm

Sweet n’ skanky

So a little while ago, I fell in love with a fabric at work. Because that doesn’t happen like every two seconds. This was a sweet rayon with a print that felt very vintage, in a soft green that is not at all my usual palette. And then we got this adorable embroidered net lace, and the pairing raised the delicate sweetness to soaring heights. Completely in love. But a little worried about making something from it that I actually want to wear. I generally like a wee bit of an edge to my sweetness, and lately I’ve been feeling that a bit more keenly. This rayon seemed like it wanted to be a drapey 30s or 40s style dress, which are sweet but not really edgy.
Which got me thinking about how to take such a dress and make it feel like me. Which led to some quality Pinterest trawling featuring loads of classic Courtney Love. /sigh. Sometimes you just never escape your inner fourteen year old.

After a little more browsing, the fabric and I compromised on Burda 6686, which appears to be the current incarnation of Burda 8071, which Handmade By Carolyn has made about a billion lovely versions of.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the dress otherwise. Construction is pretty simple. I shortened just above the waist, and added a bit of a swayback adjustment, which was largely successful. I cut a size 38 in the skirt, 36 in the bodice, very easy since they’re just gathered together. Mid-construction, I shortened the skirt by about 5″ and lowered the front neckline about 2″. Unfortunately I’d already stitched the neckline all down so I had to unpick, lower, and re-sew the elastic casing. Blerg. I’m glad I did, though.

The dress has a side zipper, which I don’t love, but hate less than I usually do. And this style really wouldn’t work with a back zipper.

I added the lace at the hem and a wee little bit at the bust. I cut my lace to match the hem length, made it into a loop, and serged upside down to the bottom edge, so that when I put in the 1″ hem it would hang free from the lace a bit, if that makes any sense. I had originally wanted the lace to hang free from a lining, but the lining was too bulky and the green print wasn’t as sheer as I originally feared.

I should probably have taken the elastic out before I stitched in the lace at the bust as I caught the elastic in, which kinda defeats the purpose of a casing. Oh, well. I’ll worry about it when/if the time comes to replace the elastic.

I added a tag made from selvedge to the back neck since I kept losing track of which was which during construction. The lace will fix that, too, I guess.

All that remained was to spike up the hair, throw on some ripped tights and chunky boots, and some dark lipstick.

I love how this dress feels barely there. And even the crappy bathroom mirror photos seem perfect for the grungy look. 😉

Perfect for pouty selfies.

By the time I get this back from display it may even be warm enough to wear it!

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Tagged as Burda 6686, Burda 8071, finished projects

February 7, 2016 · 10:51 pm

Lacy

For my February project at Fabricland I took out a double project of lingerie: the plan was for one Watson set and one Marlborough (ulp!) + underwear to be determined set (ended up being another Watson bikini, because why mess with perfection? 😉 ).

This was prompted mainly by timing—it’s a season where they don’t really want you to take out projects in last fall’s fabrics, but we didn’t have much in for the spring fabrics yet—so the selection is limited to the “regular”, non-seasonal stock. This lack of options made me finally buckle down and get around to doing something I’ve been procrastinating at for years now. A lingerie project.

My fabrics of choice were from the bridal section, stretch mesh and non-stretch lace, and the main inspiration: some really gorgeous ruched elastic they carry at a ridiculously inflated price, that only comes in these stupid little one-yard packages. Way too annoying to spend my own money on—perfect for a project. Part of the problem with sewing bras based on Fabricland stock is that things are a little hit and miss—the strap elastic doesn’t match the band elastic, there’s underwires but only one style and there’s no actual power mesh. So in many ways these projects feel very ad hoc. However, having done this I’m feeling a bit more comfortable with that—it’s not like I have significant support needs requiring industrial materials.

I started with the familiar; I’ve made the Watson set before, so you’d think it would’ve been a breeze. Well, blame passing time or being still sick, but I managed some pretty good stuff ups, despite the previous experience. The stretch mesh I was using for the back band has a LOT of stretch, so I downsized the band. And the first version of the cradle I cut out, I didn’t realize that apparently a large corner had torn off the pattern piece. So I had to recut all that (in three layers), after I had basted everything together and then realized my cradle didn’t match up with my band piece. D’oh.

Then, when applying the elastic to the panties, I used too much elastic on the first leg, leaving me short for the second leg (remembering my elastic all came in 1 yard packages)—so the elastic for the second leg is significantly tighter. Either looks fine, though I suspect they will feel a bit weird on, but the bikinis look rather weirdly lop-sided. Bleh. The project must hang. 😉 one thing that did work out was adding a panel of my lace to the front of the bikini—this turned out super cute. I basically just traced off the front pattern piece, sliced where I wanted my panel to end, and added seam allowances.

Once I recut the cradle, the construction of the bralet wasn’t bad, but a couple of things bit me in the ass. First was my decision to downsize the band. BAD idea. Especially when I had also decided to double the mesh in the band. Too tight. Way too tight.

Fortunately (?) the bra backs Fabricland sells come with this weird chunk of elastic attached to one side, which I was able to use to extend the back. So it will go around, even if it’s a bit fugly.

My biggest problem with my first two Watson bralets is that the wide long-line bands don’t stay in place. My ribcage flares at the bottom, and they just wriggle their way up. So to try to ameliorate that for this one, I added boning channels (with some scraps of my fancy elastic) over the side-seams. This seems a bit overkill for what’s supposed to be a soft bra, but if it works, it works, right? Mind you the jury is still out on it working. Because:

When the great try-on moment came, it became clear that the cup size that fits me in a cotton spandex jersey, does not fit me very well in a non-stretch lace. Lots of cutting in. Pouting, I got Tyo to try it on, since her bra size is about one cup letter smaller than mine these days. Yup, great fit. But, it’s a sweet off-white lacy bralet with rosettes… Not really her style. At all. Syo, on the other hand, seems to like it. Oh, and it fits her, too. So I think it will have a home. Maybe. Both my kids, like me, are foam cup types, so I’m actually not sure anything else will get worn.

And then, with the warmup done, it was time. Marlborough time. A scroll back through Instagram informs me that I muslined this pattern a mere 76 weeks ago! Yikes. At that time I was pretty impressed with the fit, which seemed to need only a minor tweak to the side seam. But in the meantime plenty of sewing anxiety had set in, and I stalled and faffed over not having the right notions and wrang my hands about what colour my first bra should be and generally just avoided the problem. So really, taking this out as a project with a deadline, was pretty much perfect for cutting through all that avoidance.

And now, having done it up, I’m not quite sure what I was so nervous about. Yeah, there are lots of little pieces and I wish there were maybe a few more notches to help keep track of which way the pieces fit together, but I love sewing with 1/4″ seam allowances, and by hopping back and forth between my 1/4″ foot and my edge stitch/stitch in the ditch foot the sewing itself was pretty slick. And the Instagram peeps were there to hold my hand while I panicked over my half-ass channeling, arguably the scariest part of the whole process.

For this set I layered the stretch mesh and non-stretch lace over a thin grey poly spandex knit. I kinda wish the grey showed more, actually, and maybe that I had used mesh over the power bar rather than lace, so it would show more. And maybe stretch more.

Because the biggest problem, again, is that the non-stretch lace is less forgiving than the stable-but-with-some-give earlier version. The power bar—the vertical piece at the side of the bra—actually kinda cuts in at the seam to the other pieces, not a nice look, though also not evident in the pictures, so it probably isn’t as bad as I think it is. And the shape is more pointed in the lace than it was in my scuba first version. Not a bad shape, but a little different.

For my own information, I’m going to add that the underwire I’m using is about two sizes larger than the “right” underwire for this size. This means it’s wide enough not to cut in at the side of my breast, which is one of my biggest complaints with store bought bras. I also had to shorten them significantly on the cleavage side to fit this pattern, which is fine if you have the tools for that but less fine otherwise.

At the end of the day, though, the biggest issue, which has nothing to do with the pattern or fit itself. This is a soft cup bra. I’m a foam padding & push-up girl, if I’m going to actually wear a bra. The last time I wore a soft cup bra was over a decade ago. In particular, the right padded bras mean I don’t need to worry about small bust adjustments in my sewing. So that, more than anything else, might be what keeps me from using this bra much. But I am curious. It wouldn’t be the first time sewing has coaxed me to experiment outside my comfort zone.

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Tagged as Cloth Habit, finished projects, Marlborough Bra, Orange Lingerie, Watson bikini, Watson bra

January 24, 2016 · 7:58 pm

Slinky

Because I’m a ~~glutton for punishment~~ ambitious, I decided at the last moment to take out a Valentines project from the shop. A slinky, sexy slip. Or two, since the fabric wasn’t expensive and there was room in the project budget.

Vogue 9015

The pattern is Vogue 9015. There aren’t a lot of slip options in the ButtMcVogue line (and I’ve already made Gertie’s slip and love it and wear it to death.) Now, Vogue 9015 is an absolutely gorgeous pattern, but a lot of that hangs on the lace being used. Fabricland’s lace is, um, a little underwhelming. I mean, the stuff I used was far and away the best in the store for this purpose… But it ain’t a patch on what the envelope is using. And having had the odd chance to play with really incredible lace, it’s hard to go back.

View E might be my favourite, but for project purposes I stuck to the simpler views C and D.

View D

Well, this is one of those things that seemed like a good idea (and maybe will turn out to be a good idea…) but I really hate working with slinky fabric. Neither of my versions is anything like as well finished as I would like, and my attempts to try out different methods of applying the bias binding/”facings” were not stellar.

Front Detail

For my first version, I followed the pattern instructions for shaping the neckline inset and while it’s not terrible I would’ve preferred, in hindsight, to “listen to the lace” more and curve my seams around the lace elements to avoid that seam down the middle. Frankly, I’d much rather have been working with the gorgeous scalloped-edge lace on the pattern envelope. 😉

Side stripes… kinda matched at the top, not at all at the bottom.

Because my lace was fabric and I cut it to shape to match the shape given on the pattern (as per instructions) the shaped seam along the lower edge wasn’t terribly nicely finished, so I added the ivory rayon soutache to cover it, which it does nicely. I actually only had stark white soutache on hand, but fortunately I had just brewed a fresh pot of tea, so a quick tea dye and my soutache was just the right colour.

Back chevron: SUCCESS!

I cut a size 10 and made no alterations whatsoever; I did try to match the broad repeat of the snakeskin stripes, although I didn’t have much luck at the sides. I love the chevroning in the back, though. I’m not sure if the length is perfect or if an inch or two more would have been better (or at least more romantic. 😉 )

I had just about forgotten what a nightmare trying to sew all the binding pieces in place was, but looking at the photos it’s all coming back. The pattern actually has eighty million binding pattern pieces (they call them facings) but they were all basically bias cut rectangles with the odd notch here and there, so I ignored them and just cut some long bias pieces to what seemed like a good width.

Romantic pose.

At the last moment I decided to add strap sliders to the straps to make them adjustable. This was a great idea except that my round spaghetti straps don’t really fit the rectangular sliders very well; and to start I had made the straps too long, and then I shortened them and now I basically wear it with them fully lengthened. And I am short through the upper body.

It’s quite high cut in front (at least at the strap length I ended up with), which doesn’t matter for nightie purposes but could throw a wrench into any actually-wearing-as-a-slip possibilities. The pattern calls for a “front facing” (aka bias binding) that turns into the straps, but I didn’t want to put a solid strip of fabric behind my sheer lace, so I ran my straps from the side binding and just backed the front edge with a wee bit of clear elastic zig-zagged in place, to keep them from sagging.

Lace piecing in progress

For the purple, luxe version I resolved to let the lace lead, and had great fun matching the motifs to make the corner at the neckline, and adding some extra motifs partway along to give the lace more of a scalloped shape at the neckline. Alas that was pretty much where the fun ended.

In the snakeskin version, I attached my straps/binding basically as double-fold bias binding. Not the easiest in a slinky polyester. For the second version, I resolved to try the method suggested by the pattern, which is basically the same pieces but instead of the binding wrapping around, it’s stitched on the outside and folded to the inside and top stitched down. Which I’ve seen many a blogger do beautifully, I will add, to the point where maybe I assumed it wouldn’t be hard. Well, doing it on bias poly charmeuse was very hard indeed, and only partly because the seam allowance widths change so dramatically depending on your tension.

Lace, attached.

The pattern calls for having the ends of the binding transition seamlessly into the straps in a technique that looked beautifully clever on paper and turned out to be a bit fiendish in practice, since I didn’t have the snip-to-the-seam-line that this requires in quite the right place. I ended up cutting them off and just stitching the straps in place, distinctly not the best look

After attaching the bodice lace, I had a serious crisis of conscience with the purple version, convinced that this guipure lace was way too heavy for my soft satin and even for the pattern in general. Trying it on told me two things—firstly, the length was perfect, so I didn’t want the lace to add to it, and secondly, egads, the static cling! I was basically sure the damn thing would never be wearable. Anyway, this was a store project, and The Project Must Hang, so I soldiered on. I was concerned that my wide lace would both stiffen the hem and sit awkwardly since it wouldn’t curve or flare around the curved hem. So I attempted to gently gather it in along the top edge, first with a gathering foot and then, when that failed, just by cranking up the tension on my machine. On the heavy lace, this worked really well, and gave it just enough ease (I hoped) to follow the curve nicely. I used a single length of lace around the hem, fudging the length slightly to get the motifs to line up perfectly. Fortunately the bias fabric was forgiving and happily stretched half an inch or so to accommodate this. The top of the lace looks a bit irregular in places from the gathering, but it’s not obviously ruffled and it seems to flow with the curve of the hem, so I’ll take it.

Unfortunately, I got no modeled snapshots of the second slip before it had to go hang. I don’t think I even tried it on. I was just happy the lace at the bottom didn’t stick out like a hula-hoop when I was done. So instead I’ll leave you with one last view of the snakeskin version, just in time for Jungle January. The slips are hanging now, and looking gorgeous on the mannequins, so maybe by the time I get them back I will have forgiven their flaws. Maybe.

A slip for Jungle January

PS, I can’t believe this is my fourth post this month! Thanks mostly to drafts written over the Christmas holidays, but anyway, I’ll take it. Even better, I still have a couple more in the drafts bin. 😀

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Filed under Sewing

Tagged as finished projects, Vogue 9015

January 21, 2016 · 10:00 pm

Plushy

Inspiration in the middle.

Long ago I bought (as I often did in those days*) a 70s pattern, Simplicity 8272. It was a pattern for a bunnyhug** with skirt and pants option, and the cover featured a gorgeous, muted blue velour version, styled with boots—effortless and chic and totally comfy. Yes, I did just use “chic” and “velour” in the same sentence… that probably means that there is something wrong with me.

Anyway, when this extra-stretchy luxe velour showed up at my Fabricland this past fall, I commenced petting it immediately. It has a thick, dense pile, lots of stretch, and gorgeous weight, and is super-duper soft. And came in the perfect shade of muted blue. It would be perfect for Simplicity 8272.

Except.

1) It’s freakin’ expensive,

2) it’s super stretchy, and the 70s pattern is designed for “wovens and stable knits.” No lycra required.

Both problems seemed to be solved by deciding to make it a store project using contemporary patterns to get something with the same feel.

For the skirt, I picked Burda 7143, figuring I would use one of the McCall’s in-print patterns that I had (McCall’s XXXX and XXXX were the main contenders, though neither was quite right.)

OK, so I’m gonna say right off, this is a weird pattern. It’s simple, or at least it should be. It’s designed for wovens with a stretchy knit waistband—using the stretchy velour for the skirt part didn’t seem to be a problem. It’s not a full circle skirt, though it’s close. Here’s where the weirdness kicks in: the pattern piece is meant to be cut on the fold (or rather, mirrored) twice—but the fold/mirror line is not the grain line (nor is it a simple 45 degrees to it or anything else that would make sense).

Weird layout.

This broke my sewing brain into eighty million little pieces, and I spent way more time staring at the pattern layout (which in Burda envelope patterns is printed right on a corner of the tissue) than I should have to for a pattern clearly labeled “easy.” My GUESS is that this has something to do with a) the size of the pattern piece, and b) how they want the print to fall if you’re using something like a plaid, as in the envelope picture.

I ignored it and cut four pieces, on grain, not on fold. I think I ran the nap of the velour up, for that “extra rich” look.

Once I had decided what I was doing, it was ridiculously quick to whip up. The “waistband” piece, as drafted, is REALLY tall—I shortened it a bit since my fabric was super thick and I didn’t want to fold it over. I also added elastic to the inside of the sides to keep it nicely scrunched up. I like a bunchy, scrunchy waistband on a knit skirt, to sit right in the hollow at my hips.

But, having completed the skirt and being quite, quite happy with it, I realized that the bunnyhug** I had been envisioning wasn’t quite right. It would end right where the skirt waistband bunched, and I just wasn’t digging it. Although I think a matching, very cropped version would be adorbs at some point.

Anyway, I jumped ship and made a Nettie for the top.

OK, so despite several attempts and quite a few successful crop-top versions, I haven’t actually had a Nettie that I was willing to wear out of the house yet. Mainly due to fabric that was either not stretchy enough or not thick enough—finding the two in combination seems to be tricky. And this fabric is both in spades—win! I also made sure to take the time to do the snap crotch; I always want to skip that step and just have it done!!!! but really I won’t actually wear the result if it doesn’t have the snaps. Note to self. Anyway, I made the one alteration that I ACTUALLY need with this pattern (shortening the armscye a teeny bit), and the result is basically perfect (although because I insist on both low back and low front it does tend to spread a bit and expose my bra straps. Meh.

I am really, really happy with how this turned out. It’s warm and comfy and PJ-like and still stylish and I actually like wearing the matching pieces together for a “dress” effect.

I definitely need a black Nettie…

*A habit I am trying to curtail lately purely for space reasons, plus I don’t find myself at the thrift store on a weekly basis anymore…

**Hoodie

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Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Burda 7143, finished projects, Nettie

January 19, 2016 · 6:19 pm

Skirtles

The Teacher Skirt

After the craziness of Christmas I was determined to get my January Fabricland project in. This is kinda the last chance, as we have to use fabrics from the current season, and the spring stuff is already starting to come in. And I really wanted to do something with this gorgeous, heavy brushed cotton that came in too late for Tyo’s shirt. Ok, it’s still not actually heavy, but it feels more like garment fabric and less like something intended for PJ pants. I was seriously considering a Deer & Doe Bruyère, but while I loved the mental image, I wasn’t sure if I would actually wear a plaid shirt myself (I’m not really a button-up kind of gal). I’m noticing that I often make something (especially shop projects) less because I want that item to wear than because I think it would be a great idea for a particular fabric. Fun process, but not really a practical way of wardrobe building. I mean, my wardrobe is pretty built at this stage, but you know what I mean.

Swishy!

Then it hit, rather like a lightning bolt. I love it when that happens. Vogue 8882, which I’ve been ogling since I first noticed it. A long, plaid version. Boo yeah.

Best part? The plaid was not overly expensive and so ate up only about half of my project budget. Which sent me on the prowl for part 2 of the project—how about a fun short fancy version, more in keeping with the luxe look on the fashion envelope. Bring on the Chinese brocade!

Blurry, but so cute!

Ok, so let’s back up a bit. This is a circle skirt pattern. There are no pattern pieces that you couldn’t draw out with your grade four geometry kit. The only added detail is the pleats, which are arguably the selling point, but they are every bit as fun as you would think. I don’t know if I would actually have paid the full Vogue $$$ for this pattern, pretty as I think it is, because it is so extremely basic. But getting it with the project—perfect, and it is a cinch not having to calculate anything. It comes down to which you have more of, I guess—time or money. The rectangular waistband is really wide, which could be a problem if you are quite curvy in the waist, but it works ok for my rather columnar build.

I made the size 12 based on the waist measurement, which is fine. I was a bit dismayed, though, when I got the pattern tissue open and realized that the longest version was still only 27 1/2″ long! I mean, I know I’m not short and I have a lot of leg, but the drawing of this version made me think of something between calf and ankle—27 1/2″ is upper calf on me, barely longer than “just below the knee.”

LOTS of skirt. 😀 Also, stupid spot of sunlight throwing everything off.

So I added 4″ to the plaid version (10 cm for those who use sane measuring systems). I was a little worried this would end up too long, but I have to say I am extremely happy with the finished length. Exactly what I was going for.

My daughter says it looks like a teacher skirt. I said that that had better be a good thing.

I worked disturbingly hard to get those lines to match up across the lapped zipper.

The construction was very basic for this one. I painstakingly matched the plaids horizontally along the side-seams, but completely forgot to think about vertical matching. My CB seam matching is not bad, though, and the walking foot really does help with not having the stripes crawl around on you between pins. The hardest part (actually for both skirts) was getting the overlapping parts of the waistband to be the exact same width. I actually unpicked the brocade three times, which is perilous indeed with brocade. And very unlike me. 😛

Hem by machine.

I hemmed by serging the lower edge with my differential feed turned all the way up. This produced enough gathering to give a nice 2″ hem at the bottom. I’ve been making friends (very slowly) with the blind-hemming function on my new machine, but this time it definitely did the trick. I use the blind-hem stitch with my stitch-in-the-ditch foot.

Also I added pockets, since this was supposed to be the “practical” version. You can see them in the second image. They turned out a little small, but still better than nothing (I can fit my hands in fine but not my monstrous phone.)

THE CUTE, IT BURNS!!!!

Version two is much less practical, both in length and fabric. I have no idea where I will wear it. (OK, I’ll wear it to work, since being ridiculously overdressed is kinda my baseline at both my jobs. But not until it warms up a tiny bit. No colder than -10C) I wish I went to plays or the symphony or things like that, so I could wear it there, but that would require being Cultured.

Front

The shortest two versions of this pattern include pattern pieces for a faced hem. Now, I love a faced hem on a circle skirt but I hate the part where it basically takes as much fabric for the hem facings as for the skirt itself. YIKES. So I’ve always used bias facings in the past, carefully ironed into shape. But I didn’t think that the poly-whatever brocade would bias all that well, plus I figured if I’m not willing to do hem facings when someone else is paying for the fabric, when will I ever?

Faced hem

So I sucked it up and did it and I love it to bits. You really can’t correct for bias drag with this kind of a finish, but I doubt it’ll be a problem on this short skirt in this crisp fabric. And if it is, well, it won’t be the first wonky circle skirt I’ve worn happily. I love the weight it gives to the skirt (and I didn’t even interface the facing, as the pattern suggested.)

Zipper

I’m kinda absurdly proud of my lapped zipper on this one, too.

Back view

Here’s a back view, since I think sewing blogs should include things like that. And apparently I didn’t get one of the plaid skirt. 😛

Of course, it’s a project, so now I have to go and hang it and I won’t get to wear either of them for a month. /cry. The best projects are the hardest to hang…